columbiaslfandomcom-20200215-history
Salvation
Salvation is the name of the orbital installation above Columbia, on which the primary events of the game take place. History Columbia was discovered in 2339 by a joint UN-USAE scientific mission, exploring gravitic distortions around known Briar Patch areas. These turbulent regions generally appear close to nebulae, star-forming regions or parts of space heavily populated with stars and large planetary systems. Given the interference caused with Skip drives and their component Sabine engines in these regions, the safe routes for travel between systems located near to the distortions are routinely mapped by expeditions from all governments. Columbia was an anomaly at first - although near-habitable planets had been discovered before, all had required at least an element of the lengthy and expensive terraforming process. The possibility of a world that could be settled immediately was a tantalizing one, leading the USAE scientists to claim the planet in the name of their nation. The claim itself was ruled illegal by a UN council, stating that as the USAE was part of a joint expendition, both the nation and the UN could lay claim to it. Being the supreme supranational body (and the one with the biggest guns), the USAE was forced to relinquish its claim and establish consilium rule. The planet was effectively made neutral, and lying as it did in the confluence between major Skip points, would almost inevitably become a trading hub in its own right. Led by a Governor, the planet's rule would be overseen from a spaceborne installation, with democratic rule administered by a Council comprised equally of representatives from different nations. The appointment was hardly relished - outside of the scientific interest, Columbia is a border world in the truest sense, being at the fringes of possible Skip translation due to the enormous nebulae that fence it in. As such, it tends to be removed from the minutiae of court intrigue that defines inner-system life, although its importance as a trade route was such that it could not be overlooked. The installation, crowned Salvation in English and analogous words in the other languages of humanity, commenced operation on 2249. A transition period of military to civilian rule took around eight months to complete, during which time, the first UN governor was installed. Ahoyo Ukwun, a quiet, bookish man by nature, was ill-suited to the charisma and presence required to oversee and mediate between forceful diplomats. His time was mostly occupied preventing the bickering that a seasoned diplomat should be abl to navigate with ease. As a result, departments unrelated to high politics were given broad autonomy and lax regulation to perform their duties. Residency counts exploded, trade posts set up and dismantled at will, and the thin contingent of USAE Colonial Marines, originally placed to provide security for the transition, found themselves unable to transition to a policing role without diplomatic incident. Ukwun was removed from office in 2257, although medical reasons were given as an official cause for replacement. In his place, retired General Paolo Benitez took over. Benitez proved a study in constrasts to his predecessor, but an effective one. The establishment of the Salvation Corps of Investigation provided a non-military solution to the station's security issues, even if accusations of it being little more than a paramilitary force under the direct control of the Governor's office were leveled almost immediately. The incipient slums near the docks were cleared, although the area remans, to this day, a hotbed of criminal activity. Salvation continued to thrive, eventually reaching a milestone of 75,000 inhabitants in 2282. The addition of extra facilities makes it the biggest installation of its kind for light years around, and daily traffic is estimated in the millions. Structure Salvation is divided, broadly, into five sectors, all of which have various districts and cantons contained within. The Cradle The legislative and administrative seat of power on Salvation, and therefore Columbia. Governor Benitez holds court over Council meetings in this sector, which also contains the courts and the vast bureaucratic apparatus required to keep a station and planet functioning on a daily basis. The Cradle is seen as the domain of the upper classes; by its definition, it attracts the rich, the influential and the ambitious. Its streets may be safer than other areas of Salvation, but they also attract a different kind of danger. The Stacks If the Cradle is home to the height of Salvation's societal ladder, then the Stacks are its mirror image. So called because of the tendency to stack hab units on top of one another, they are teeming wth life. A sizeable majority of the station's population lives in The Stacks, but crime is surprisingly controlled by an effective combination of SCI policing and neighborhood stewards, self-organized police and governance units. A vibrant media landscape, often controversially opposed to the Governor's office, permeates the Stacks, while the majority of permanent everyday businesses are located here. Dockside The main point of antrance and egress to Salvation. Dockside hosts the loading bays, landing pads, hangars and cargo storage facilities that service trade and commerce for the station. Rigidly organized, the docks still provide an area for lucrative criminality due to the population's transient nature, and a permanent operational headache for SCI agents and corpsmen. The Downs Housing the machinery, life support mechanisms, gravity generators and industrial Sabine engines of Salvation, the Downs are the most critical area of the station, and therefore, the most controlled and protected. Security checkpoints litter every major throughfare, and patrols cover every inch of the district. Workshop District Being a heavily scientific endeavor as well as a commercial one, Salvation holds hundreds of laboratories, experiment spaces and test environments for most disciplines. Corporations lease the vast majority of space here, with governmental involvement generally restricted to that of a diplomatic (or military) nature.